When Did The Recession End For You? State Unemployment Returns Above 9 Percent

Unemployment is up over 9 percent again. Connecticut lost 5,300 jobs over the past two months, more than canceling out the gains of May and June.

But hey, did you hear that the recession ended more than a year ago, in June 2009?

The state Department of Labor released its August jobs report Monday, and it was mostly dark clouds, with very little silver lining. Temporary census jobs did account for hundreds of August's job losses — but the fact remains that private employers are not hiring fast enough to help the state's 171,400 jobless people help themselves. The unemployment rate is still below the peak, which was 9.2 percent in March, but just barely, at 9.1 percent.

Through eight months of 2010, the state's economy has created 8,000 jobs. At this rate, it would take eight years to replace the jobs that the state lost during the recession.

It wasn't just unemployed people who raised eyebrows at the news Monday that the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the recession had ended 14 months ago.

"I'm looking for a job, and jobs are very hard to find. My daughter-in-law, she's been unemployed for almost two years," said Martha Taylor of Bloomfield as she played with her grandchildren in Elizabeth Park in Hartford. Taylor's daughter-in-law worked for The Hartford in human resources.

Taylor, a home health aide with just three clients right now and no full-time work for more than a year, said she thought we were still in recession. "I work like an hour and a half a day, two hours, that's it. That's not enough."

Monday's announcement brought a dry quip from Cathy Flavin-McDonald, a principal at the Leadership Research Institute, an executive coaching firm with an office in Middletown. "If the recession ended, they might want to let people know."

It's not that things are terrible at work. She is seeing more willingness to commit to spending among clients in the past six weeks or so. No one was laid off at her firm in the recession. But she said that clients are cautious, and so, too, is her family.

"You're more careful around where you shop," she said, trading down from more expensive stores.

They've delayed replacing their older car. They'd like to sell their vacation home, but the market is too soft.

Her children, who are 9, 7 and 3, have their allowance put into three jars, for spending, saving and charity. "We spend more time talking to our kids about why you save money," she said.

The recession is technically over because the economy has had sustained growth for more than a year. U.S. corporations hit an all-time high for profits in the first quarter of 2010.

But if we've escaped from hell, it seems like we're going to be in purgatory for a hellishly long time.

As for the timing of the recession, people's disbelief and disgust at the "recession ended" announcement stems from their misunderstanding of what it means that a recession's over, said economist Nicholas S. Perna of Ridgefield, who advises Webster Bank and teaches at Yale University.

"When they hear the recession is over, they seem to think we're saying we're fully recovered or we're almost fully recovered," he said. "We are nowhere near recovered, even though the recession is over."

He said it's like when a guy is in a horrific car crash and is in the hospital. "The patient's status has gone from life-threatening to stable," but he's not able to get up out of bed and walk.

Some people did welcome the news that the recession had ended — just like some will look at the state's labor report and note that the private sector added 1,900 jobs in August rather than the fact that the job base shrank by 900.

Gia Oei was laid off from her six-figure job at Carrier, a division of United Technologies Corp., in April 2009. "Jobs typically lag behind in any recovery," she said.

Oei said she wasn't seeing any openings for high-level communications jobs like the one she had until April of this year. She turned down one job offer in June, because between a smaller bonus, stock awards and salary, it would have meant a 35 percent to 40 percent pay cut, she said.

"They did not have the compensation appropriate for that role," she said, and even though she hasn't found a job yet, she still feels that it was the right decision.

The 40-year-old single mother had a job interview Monday, her fourth since June.

"It's encouraging, the level of activity that there is today versus last year," she said. She said the announcement by the National Bureau of Economic Research "is another indication that things are improving and moving in the right direction."

Encouraging, perhaps, but Vinny Amore, 40, a stay-at-home dad in Hartford, was suspicious of the declaration. "The recession's not over," he said. "You know that, right?"